Posts Tagged ‘parkrun’

It’s a parkrun. On a beach. You literally run ip the beach for two and a half kilomtres and then turn around and run back down again. It’s amazing.

The surface is surprisingly good. The sand is hard so you do not get the exhaustion of running on soft sand. It is probably not a PB course, but it’s not difficult going, either. There are a few streams to jump over and some seaweed to dodge which is all part of the fun.

It was raining heavily the day I went and continued to rain throughout the entire run. None of that killed the fun for me. No chance of sunburn, exhaustion or dehydration. It was beautiful. Where else would you want to be on a rainy Saturday morning?

Except you cannot be here every Saturday. One of the quirks of the events is that they can only run the event at low tide so it only takes place around half of the time. It is well worth the trip if you can make it, though. This is a contender for my favourite parkrun.

Lovely parkrun. I received a warm welcome at the gate and after the run, where they provide a spread of biscuits and hot and cold drinks. It is three laps around the park and has a few lumps but no serious hills. Thank you to all of the volunteers for a pleasant morning.

Pontefract parkrun takes place on the race course. It features one loop around the race course track and two laps around the lake. All fairly flat. Thank you to all of the volunteers for making it happen.

On Saturday, I ticked off my first parkrun in the compass club. It’s a lovely small parkrun with friendly volunteers and a three lap course around the castle demesne which was lovely and shaded by the trees.

You need ten parkruns beginning with the letter S to complete the snakes challenge. That is a lot of Ss. Stormont was my sixth. It is a well attended event that takes in two laps of the Stormont Estate with the start and finish on Prince of Wales Avenue looking up at the parliament building. Thank you to all of the volunteers for making the event happen.

Last weekend I went to Navan parkrun. It is a three-and-a-half lap course following the loop around Blackwater Park. One hill but a slow downhill, too. Some nice views of the river and what looks like an old mill. Thank you to all of the volunteers for looking after us.

Last weekend I completed Porch Field parkrun. It’s my 60th different parkrun event It’s located in Trim and it is a lovely run. Two laps of the park which features a ruined church, riverside section and sheep including some lambs. Friendly volunteers, of course, as well.

I was almost take to the start due to a racist parking app so I had to sprint to the start line. That apparently left quite a lot of adrenaline in my system and I ended up running 23:30 including stopping to take a selfie. I could have taken it after but that would have meant doing another lap of the course. it also gave me an age group victory, coming 1st out of 5!

Well done Venla who has now completed 50 junior parkruns and earned her ultra wristband. Little Bear is not far from his ultra wristband, either.

Last week I completed my 400th parkrun. It was also Arik’s 250th parkrun and that is a real milestone. We got a group picture but I’m not sure where they ended up so here is one of me crossing the finish line with Jonas. I baked some focaccia for the after party at the cafe.

It’s been an exciting time to be running Marlay recently. First, Paul Sinton-Hewitt (parkrun’s founder) made a guest appearance a few weeks ago. A got a five-high and a handshake. Then last weekend, they celebrated their 500th event. I wasn’t in photo and there wasn’t cake but that’s understandable given they would have had 688 runners plus volunteers to feed.